Why is global anti-semitic violence up, when general violence is down?

…here’s the rate of anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S., as tallied by the Anti-Defamation League. What you see is a peak in the early 90s and a decline ever since. This is exactly the same thing that you see in rates of violent crime in general. In other words, as violent crime fell, violent crime directed at Jews also fell. This makes sense.

But the global picture is quite different. Partly this is probably due to the fact that the worldwide numbers come from a different source (the Kantor Center in Tel Aviv) and are tallied up using a different methodology. But I doubt that accounts for the stark contrast: worldwide, anti-Semitic attacks have been on a straight upward path ever since the late 90s. This is despite the fact that violent crime in Europe, which accounts for most of the incidents, has followed a trajectory pretty similar to the U.S.

Kevin also reports that the Canadian pattern is closer to Europe than to the United States. You also can find some charts at the link.

Drum speculates that the reason antisemitic violence is up in Europe but not in the US because of the rise of far right parties here. Then he says he can’t guess why Canada, with no such parties, follows the European pattern.

Have a look at the ‘How Muslims, Christians and Jews See Each Other’-part. As I recently pointed out on my blog, the percentage of muslims who have favourable views of Jews roughly correspond to what I imagine the similar number would be for members of the Waffen-SS in the 1940es. Lots of places in Europe you’d have to look really hard to find groups of far-rightists in Europe whose anti-semitism is as extreme as what you find among main-stream muslims. The number of muslims in Europe have increased a hell of a lot more than the number of neo-nazi groups in Europe since the early 90es.

‘Lots of places in Europe you’d have to look really hard to find groups of far-rightists in Europe whose anti-semitism is as extreme as what you find among main-stream muslims.’

Yeah, the NPD is really hard to find in Germany. And as for the mainstream Muslims here, Turks tend to be supporters of Israel (might have to do with how Arabs look at Turks, and vice versa, of course). Not that the NPD cares that much when it comes to ‘cleaning up’ (Wir räumen auf), as one of their more charming campaign posters from the past said

Ethno-nationalists are not antagonistic to Israel, a classic ethno-nationalist state. They are antagonistic to Jews who say Gentiles, but not Jews, must deconstruct their own nation-states to make Jews feel more welcome.

There is the little detail that the numbers are falling because about 50.000 of people with the Turkish passport are taking german citizenship every year and their kids, while often very Turkish, are counted as germans since they get citizenship as well.

Using your source: “Overall, the number of German residents with origins in Turkey was approximately 2,998,000” and that was in 2005, right now it’s probably around 4.000.000, or 5% of the population of Germany. And while it’s true that Turks weren’t so much part of the Eurabian thing, it’s also true that Turkey stance towards Israel is deteriorating quickly and the Turkish masses (Instambul is an exception there) are radicalizing thanks to the fact that radical imams, often trained in the arabic peninsula, are filling the void in local priesthood left by the Khamalist policies (http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/emre-uslu/support-for-radical-islamism-on-the-rise-in-turkey_346575.html, for instance)

Anyway, it’s true the Turks (still) represent a minor problem in radical islam and anti-semitism in Europe compared to people of Arab origin.

Wilders the leader of extreme right in the Netherlands is very likely? financed by Israel…but I think some proportion of the extreme right is anti-semitic. Also in Eastern Europe there is quite some anti-semitism (I believe, dont have data to back it up, but from only from a couple of people i know)

Whereas Steve is in the business of just noticing things. Anything and everything if there’s a pattern he’ll spot it. Unless it’s a pattern of Russian imperialism in which case hell explain how Georgia/ Ukraine/ Moldova/ and coming soon Estonia started it.

The ADL, like the SPLC, is in the business of keeping rich old Jews scared of anti-Semitism so they’ll give money to the ADL.

Steve, the ADL was an organization with an authentic and defensible purpose before it was damaged by Abraham Foxman. The SPLC is a crooked money-racket and hardly had any other purpose. While we’re at it, the ADL still has a non-zero quantum of work to do, as can be seen by scanning the content of The Unz Review.

A bunch of Golden Dawn thugs, East German skinheads, EDL hooligans, and Front National supporters would love to discuss that observation with you – and assuming you are American, you can then chalk up that stomping to Muslim hatred of Americans, too.

It isn’t the Turks in Germany vandalizing Jewish cemeteries, after all.

In Canada, I suspect it has to do with a lot of immigration from Arab-Muslim countries.

I also get the impression that Canadian Muslims are more like their European counterparts in terms of levels of radicalization. There was that whole stink over Omar Khadr being held in Guantanamo. Also the general level of Canadian anti-Americanism probably reinforces more radical Muslim attitudes.

Canadian immigration, which prefers immigrants with skills and education, should be filtering such people out. And US immigration policy, which lacks such filters, should be letting more of them in. And yet– not. Why?

Many Muslim immigrants to Canada are from French speaking North Africa, and have settled in Quebec. Quebec controls immigration to the province, not the Feds, and the ability to speak French counts for a great deal. Hence, a lot of Haitians, French speaking Arabs and Africans in the province.

Well I have known a lot of American Muslim immigrants and find the more education the more antisemitism, though it varies by type of education. The craziest, and most dangerous fanatics have been engineers, the least have been medical doctors and dentists, especially clinicians as opposed to researchers.

One other issue though is very few muslims lacking education ever get to the US, and many of those who do are from rural landlord backgrounds who came as refugees, recognized or not, and most of these came a long time ago.

I’m sure you were being sarcastic, so could you point to some? Off the top of my head (which is not operating at high efficiency ATM), I’m not thinking of any. Global warming, school performance, shrinking middle class/inequality

Honestly, it’s depressing to even have to point that out. Economists are always pointing out that immigration raises the standard of living of the immigrants. Of course it increases global carbon emissions.

Israel is constantly fighting with “distant relatives” of hundreds of millons of people. Simplifying “distant relatives” as Muslim people, according to Wikipedia (yeah, I know) 6% of european population and 2.8% of canadians is a much higher percentage than 0.8% of USA population.

About Neo Nazi attacks… well, it is easier to be a Neo Nazi where there are a lot more previous examples and leaders. Furthermore, jewish culture is more mainstream in USA than in Europe. I’m sure attacks to jews have more public interest in USA than in Europe.

Over the last dozen years, Israel has built itself effective border fences (something that our leaders tell us is impossible to do) so it’s no longer much plagued by anti-Semitic terrorists walking in like it was in the early 21st Century.

Because let’s be honest, the East Germans were building effective border fences decades before Israel, until a meddling American president demanded that it be torn down, and why? To quote President Reagan again – ‘We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace.’

Just another American leader stabbing people doing nothing but minding their citizens’ business 24 hours a day in the back.

I forgot to say that, yes, Israel has been fighting with these “distant relatives” since decades, but it is currently much easier to form an asymmetrically bayesian opinion and get the necessary material to show this opinion.

Don’t me too smug. Last time I looked at the official hate-crime stats, which was a decade ago, after a spike in antisemitic attacks in France (doubled in a year), I was surprised to find out they were still 3 times less likely to occur in France than in the US. Interestingly, islamophobic attacks in the US were also much less frequent than antisemitic ones, even adjusting for subpopulation size.

Violent crime is much higher in the US than in Europe, of course, but I suspect there is a deep well of antisemitism in the US, specially in the Deep South. Just because it was made socially unacceptable and driven underground after WWII does not make it any less virulent.

To focus on the case of France, much of the current wave of antisemitism originates in the North African Muslim community. It doesn’t have a religious component per se – French Muslims are among the most secular in Europe, just like other French, but has more to do with pan-Arab ethnic and cultural solidarity. There does seem to be a strong economic component to it, however, by an economically downtrodden minority jealous of the putative wealth of the Jewish community. The gang who kidnapped Ilan Halimi made the incorrect assumption that just because he was Jewish he was rich, tried to ransom him, then ended up torturing and murdering him.

In other European countries, the receding memory of the Holocaust emboldens the more vicious antisemites. Not sure what the deal is with Canada.

It is not about colour, if you don’t speak the language in a country like Germany, than you won’t make any friends, forget about it. Most Northern European folks, are just not very welcoming. If try Southern Europe, you will feel much more welcomed.

But it’s not about language either. I’ve known people who spoke decent, if not perfect, German who had similar complaints. Language does help, but if you intend to be unfriendly to outsiders you can invent a lot of reasons.

I wouldn’t be surprised if a German from Saxony felt unwelcome in Franconia.

Well Rahul, German people are german 😀 …. I have spoken with German expats, and even they don’t like Germans. Even in the minuscule The Netherlands, you don’t need to drive more than 150 km, to feel like an outsider (even if you are dutch that is!).

I am not sure why. It is just the way they are (it becomes worse the more north you go…) . I am also considering to move to the US, but you guys have also a lot of annoying things 😀 , but yeah in principle more open to meet new people, i think the reason is because people move out of state a lot more than in Europe.

I’ve not heard that the Dutch are particularly unwelcoming. Sure, if you move into a smaller community, it may take a while for people to warm to the stranger, but within 2 generations, max 3, your family will stop being considered strangers, although it may take another generation or two before you’re no longer the “new family”.

I used to have an Indian-born colleague who came from Maharashtra (the state that includes Mumbai). She told me here family is from a community that migrated there about 1,500 years ago, and are still regarded as “the newcomers”. Not sure if she was pulling my leg or not, but white Europeans have no monopoly on xenophobia.

Yep. I don’t speak good enough German for my own liking, so of course social situations are difficult unless it is with those people who readily speak English — and that’s self-isolation. Some of my white friends tell me that racist attitudes are common here, but I have no way to detect them.

but I suspect there is a deep well of antisemitism in the US, specially in the Deep South. Just because it was made socially unacceptable and driven underground after WWII does not make it any less virulent.

Sure, you have no evidence, it is deeply hidden, but you know it is there. How precisely? You don’t see how this is precisely the mirror image of the anti-Semitism you decry? People had no evidence Jews killed Christian boys for their Passover bread either.

The reason for rising anti-semitism in Europe is mostly (let’s say 80% , with other 20% rising extreme right people) due to the growing muslim communities. But let’s never forget the role of US/EU allies in spreading anti-semitism: your dear friend Saudi Arabia is THE major exporter of a medievel ideological version of Islam (with the blessing of the US!), that basically wants us to become a giant caliphate. It is with this sort of ideology that a lot of young people are growing up, which in time will cause disastrous results both in Muslim and non-Muslim countries.

“but I suspect there is a deep well of antisemitism in the US, specially in the Deep South. Just because it was made socially unacceptable and driven underground after WWII does not make it any less virulent.”

Yeah, sure, that’s why those anti-Semitic Southerners never let poor Judah P. Benjamin have any good jobs in the Confederate Government or why the poor Lehman Bros. never got any business when they were founded in Montgomery Alabama in 1855.

I realize that this is a widespread fantasy these days retconning the past, but the historical record shows that white Southerners have traditionally been more pro-Semitic than white Northerners:

In general, Jews were more welcomed by Southern elites. Much as in medieval Poland, where the nobles invited in Jewish merchants to provide them the financial services that their own people were too innumerate to undertake, rich Southern Protestants generally saw themselves as an agrarian warrior class. So Jewish commercial facilitators, such as the Lehman Brothers, who founded the future investment bank in Alabama in 1855, tended to be welcomed as complementary to the landowners.

In contrast, rich Northern Protestants, who were generally descendants of literate Puritans, were more likely than their Southern counterparts to be in commerce rather than plantations. So WASP firms competed with Jewish firms on Wall Street. Relations between Jews and Protestants tended to be relatively cordial in both the North and the South, but there was more rivalry in the North, where the Yankees of New England had similar commercial and intellectual skills.

In many Southern small towns, however, where the general tenor of life was less enterprising, the Jewish dry goods merchant, cotton broker, or banker was a valued part of the local establishment. For example, when the Augusta National Golf Club (home of the Masters) opened in 1932 in rural Georgia, local Jewish commercial leaders were invited to join. But as the membership became more dominated by Northern corporate titans while President Eisenhower was a member, several decades went by before any more Jews were let in.

There’s a lot of propaganda put out by Northern Democratic Jews to imply that Southern Republican gentiles have been traditionally anti-Semitic, but there’s just not much evidence to support that. A lot of Jews today want to believe that anti-black sentiments and anti-Semitic sentiments were historically tied together but there’s little evidence of that. In reality, Jews tended to be relatively pro-slavery in the U.S. and in Brazil. Similarly, Jews profited immensely off abuse of black laborers in South Africa’s mines. Exploiting black labor was hugely profitable for capitalists for a long time, and Jews were very successful capitalists. And they lagged considerably behind post-Puritan capitalists in developing a conscience over blacks.

There’s a lot to feel guilty about, but “Jewish guilt” is the opposite of “white guilt.” “White guilt” is worrying that your ancestors were being too ethnocentric, while “Jewish guilt” (as classically demonstrated in Roth’s “Portnoy’s Complaint”) is worrying that you aren’t being ethnocentric enough for your ancestors.

Yeah, I wasn’t necessarily disputing what you said, but was saying a major factor these days (getting past whether Confederate were anti-Semitic here) seems to be the evangelical link. Can’t tell if you think that plays a role.

Also, from what I’ve read, Jews in South Africa were more often reformers, many of the ANC variety. You agree?

I don’t necessarily disagree with Steve’s points comparing Northern and Southern Protestants during the 19th century, but to some extent it appears that the branch of Protestantism traced to Calvin was less-anti-Semitic than others. That may be because Calvin was more likely to use the Old Testament, and “covenant” beliefs to explain Christianity, so that Christians tended to see themselves as Israel. A Christian declaring themselves a “perfected Jew” may be discomforting bit of identity appropriation, but it’s not violent.

But there’s an interesting historical paradox: Calvinism / Puritanism was culturally Judaizing. It emphasized the Ashkenazi virtues of literacy, commerce, savings, work ethic, scholarship, and so forth. Over time it turned some Christians into first-rate bankers and merchants, who, in the North didn’t really need Jews to provide them with financial services the way white Southerners needed Jews as complementary to their way of life. And white Southerners saw Jews as less hostile, less reformist and meddling, and less sympathetic to blacks than the damn Yankees.

Eventually many Jews absorbed post-Puritan liberalism from northern WASPs and then conveniently forgot about their own historical record, projecting their current liberalism backward in time and retconning up a tradition of Southern anti-Semitism that barely existed. As Joe Sobran pointed out, the implicit definition of “anti-Semitism” has mutated over time from “hating Jews” to “being hated by Jews,” so I guess in that sense you can say that Southern whites are now notoriously anti-Semitic.

A lot of the fundamentalist enthusiasm for Israel is ethno-nationalism by proxy for people who aren’t allowed to be ethno-nationalists themselves. White Southern gentiles aren’t allowed to cheer themselves on, but they are allowed to cheer on Jews.

Conversely, Jews tend to take out their resentments of other Jews on gentiles. So liberal Jews who are irritated by Likudnik Jews are encouraged by their common Jewish culture to get angry and suspicious at Southern gentiles as a proxy.

In my experience, Christians in general tend to feel affinity towards Jewish people. My very religiously conservative grandfather explained to me that the Jews are God’s chosen people, so they are exempt from the commandments of the New Testament, which was about outreach to non-Jewish believers. In some sense Christians believe that Jews are not just equals, but hold a special place as God’s ‘chosen people’. Therefore they are to be protected and supported.

When I was young I attended Christian churches of many denominations, led by pastors from the ‘deep south’ as well as from the North, Canada, etc. I never heard any anti-semitic talk in church, after church, or at social occasions.

I’ve never seen evidence of any kind of deep-rooted anti-semitism in the south. Of course you can find anti-semitic individuals anywhere, but to tie anti-semitism to ‘The South’ or to any defined group of people requires evidence of a higher than normal preponderance of anti-semitism within the group. I haven’t seen it.

The fact that Jews were able to worm their way into elite positions doesn’t mean that these societies were “philo-Semitic”. Jews have often been able to in relatively non philo-Semitic Christian and Muslim societies due to money and political skill. Furthermore, there were so few Jews in the South relative to the North that they effectively didn’t exist for ordinary Southerners. They weren’t necessarily “philo-Semitic”

The South was arguably the best place on the planet Earth for Jews to live for at least 100 years. Southern Jews were absolutely devoted to the Confederacy. One can look at that as a good thing or a bad thing, but it is a fact. Jewish American history is really quite interesting and unfortunately not well known, even by most Jews (who think it started somewhere near Ellis Island).

As for “philo-Semitism.” I don’t think it explains much of the Civil War era, but there is a significant segment of Christians that are very fond of Jews. Dan Hanson discussed it above and I have personally experienced it on numerous occasions.

Have you ever BEEN to the South? And what, exactly, is the Deep South? Are you even aware that the first Hillel–created before there even was a Hillel–was in the then-small, rural town of College Station, Texas?

I suspect there is a deep well of antisemitism in the US, specially in the Deep South. Just because it was made socially unacceptable and driven underground after WWII does not make it any less virulent.

I’ve lived there for a long time and I never saw much of it. There was some resentment against the politics of the Jewish left and the neocons, but I’ve only rarely seen real hatred of the Jews.(Hatred of Blacks is certainly there, though) As I’m married to a Jewish woman some of the Jews have assumed I share their views and so I’ve heard a lot of their resentments against gentiles, which seems to be much more commonly expressed than the other way around.

and if you normalize the big spike in 2008 due to the Gaza–Israel conflict, the trend seems to match pretty well. Coincidence?

Oh, at the end of the 90s Saudi Arabia and Qatar started to fund more and more mosquees in Europe.. and appoint the clerics there and that’s where the attacks on jews trend increases even more. Just saying.

Over the last 10-15 years public opinion has definitely swung from Israel to Palestine, everywhere in the world except the US. Witness the UN voting records over the last few years – even countries who typically vote with the US (Australia, New Zealand) have been voting with Palestine, or at least abstaining.

If general, moderate opinion has swung towards the Palestinians, it stands to reason that there will be a greater number of radical supporters – except in the US where opinion hasn’t really moved.

Even as terrorism against Jews in Europe and elsewhere spikes, and increasing numbers of Jews abandon counties they have called home for centuries, it’s simply not proven that Jews are being persecuted?

As the world has grown smaller, cultural differences including religious differences have grown larger, in Christianity as well as in Islam. It’s often expressed that conservative Christians are sympathetic and not antagonistic to Israel, and that’s true. To Israel, not Jews. Israel is the holiest of places for Christians, and conservative Christians expect Jesus to return to the land of Israel. According to St. Paul in his letters, he traveled from town to town spreading the gospel of Jesus and setting up small house churches, first meeting with Jews, but being rejected by the Jews, Paul would meet with Gentiles. It’s a narrative repeated again an again: rejection of the Messiah by Jews. The Jews, having committed deicide and having been offered salvation, rejected the Messiah and got what was coming to them. Deicide? Attend a conservative Christian church this Easter and watch and listen to the re-enactment of the passion (suffering) of Jesus at the hands of “the Jews” as read from the Gospel of John, the most popular of the four canonical Gospels among conservatives. It’s chilling. The irony is that Jews were powerless and yet are depicted as powerful in the Christian canon, not unlike the depiction of Jews throughout history; indeed, even though, with the exception of Paul’s letters, the canon was written after 70 CE, there’s no reference to what occurred in 70 CE. Again, my point is that as the world has grown smaller, cultural and religious differences have grown larger, and Jews are the targets of the most extreme elements of those differences.

Economic factors? Don’t see any obvious ones. Muslims in Europe are poorer than Europeans, but they were just as relatively and absolutely poor 20 years ago, the difference is that there’s more of them.

Violent anti-Semitism in Europe (actually everywhere) is now mostly caused by Muslims. Given the massive increase in Muslim immigration to America during the last ten years, I’m sure we’ll face similar problems. The only difference is that we have the 2nd Amendment.

1. Anti-semitic violence may be coming from Arab-Muslim communities who, of course, are angry about the State of Israel.

2. Anti-semitic violence my be aroused by far-right anger over attacks against Western targets by Muslims, which they perceive to be motivated by Western support for Israel. I actually see this from some on the far right, where they blame 9/11, for instance, on America’s support for Israel, and by extension, the “jewish lobby”.

Hazel, there’s a class of physicians who have on their patient rolls people who think they’re under surveillance and that the U.S. Government is beaming thoughts into their heads. I do not think people are all that concerned with what such people are angry about (‘of course’) bar for brutely practical reasons.

I’m not sure which is worse for the Jews, Israel or it’s fifth column controlling Congress, ensuring continuing intervention in the Mideast, always trying to reduce the power of
any enemy deemed by Israel to be a danger or among many, those deemed strongest at the moment.

One of my friends recently posted on facebook a group photo from our prep school graduation day in which those of us who were sons and grandsons of alums stood with our fathers and grandfathers. Several of my Jewish classmates were sons and another was one of the two 3rd generationers – Gerry’s grandfather was one of the first grads to have done all 6 years at the school (class of 1913 or 1914? the school was founded in 1905). But the school was run by very philosemite Presbyterians. Rabbis got the same clergy discount Protestant clergy did. This was Chattanooga, TN. Coming up Jewish in the South was complicated, but only complicated in different ways from being Roman Catholic in East Tennessee or Episcopalian in Mississippi.

I’d say that Hamas’ strategy (as opposed to their utterly ineffective tactics) is working well. Every time they make the Israeli’s “mow the lawn” by firing enough unaimed rockets to provoke them, support for Israel ebbs a little more, particularly in Europe. The resulting “barrage” of video, outraged media and finger-pointing “studies” does the trick.

If this thing blows up beyond its current low boil, Israeli troops may end up fighting alongside Assad loyalists and Hezbollah. Though apparently, ISIS considers Europe a softer target than Israel, which they probably are.

Support for Israel is the underlying variable. It has been declining everywhere except for the US. It reflects the success of Hamas in painting Palestinians as victims and Israel as the ogre-ish oppressor. Every time Israel “mows the lawn” again in Gaza, the trend accelerates. It is popping up in the US, too, mostly on campus.